1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to the area of integrated circuit designs. More particularly, the present invention is related to architecture of an integrated circuit for streaming media over different wireless networks.
2. Description of the Related Art
Wireless network is becoming more and more popular with the introduction of various wireless devices. One of the important applications is the distribution of media data over a wireless network. The media data may include news, various footage, pictures, and up-to-date data in the form of video and/or audio.
To facilitate the exchange of media data between two devices, a common practice is to provide a media chip that is coupled to a baseband processor that is further coupled to a RF chip. As a result, a PC board in a wireless device is often employed with multiple chips. Not only is the high cost associated with such multiple chips on a board, but different wireless standards can lead to different designs of the board, incurring high cost in engineering and extending the development cycle.
It is well known that there are many wireless standards or protocols being adopted to facilitate wireless communication between devices. Examples of such standards include 806.11a, 806.11b, 806.11 g, 802.16d and 802.16e. Depending on actual applications, it is not possible to conclude one standard is better than another standard. To make a wireless device capable of communicating in more than one wireless standard, it would be desirable to integrate a number of baseband chips, each supporting one wireless standard. However, such solution would be costly and may increase the complexity of the wireless device.
There is, thus, a need for an integrated circuit architecture that integrates media functions and wireless functions provided in more than one standard by using common functional blocks so that the resultant chips can support media applications in more than one wireless standard without significantly increasing the design complexity of the chips as well as the devices.